‘He Must Not Drive’

An East Hampton man who was involved in a fatal car accident two years ago was arrested shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday and charged with driving while intoxicated. East Hampton Town police stopped Diego Barahona, 21, on Montauk Highway in Wainscott after receiving a call about an erratic driver.

At the time of the fatality, Mr. Barahona was driving an S.U.V. with a learner’s permit on Flamingo Road in Montauk. He was not criminally charged in the April 18, 2011, incident, in which the car flipped onto its roof, ejecting a passenger, Fabian Conce of East Hampton, 22. Mr. Conce was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

During his Monday-morning arraignment before Justice Catherine Cahill on the D.W.I. charge, Mr. Barahona seemed distracted, fidgeting and looking around the courtroom as the justice spoke to him.

“Pay attention to the judge. Don’t look out the window,” a guard said to him at one point. Mr. Barahona looked back at Justice Cahill, who was asking him if anyone knew he’d been arrested.

“I called my mom this time,” Mr. Barahona said.

“Is she coming down?”

“I called this morning but she never picked up,” he answered, but added that he had spoken to her in a call from the police station.

The justice asked the defendant about the circumstances behind the 2011 crash and the suspension of his license that followed. The paperwork before her apparently had few specifics. Mr. Barahona seemed uncertain of the details about either.

After the justice set bail for the young man at $750, his mother entered the courtroom.

“Apparently his license was already suspended for that fatal accident he was involved with,” Justice Cahill said to her. “He must not drive.”

About the Author

T.E. McMorrow began freelancing for The Star in 2009, before coming on staff, full time, at the end of 2011. He is a member of the Drama Desk in New York. His book, “Nutcracker in Harlem,” illustrated by James Ransome, is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2016 by HarperCollins children’s division.